| “ | The idea that the tales told in some of our games would be connected to each other, a connected world of stories and events with shared characters and lore. Each game is a stand-alone experience, but each game is also a doorway into a larger universe with exciting opportunities for crossover events. | ” |
The Remedy Connected Universe is a shared fictional universe created by Remedy Entertainment. Within the Remedy Connected Universe, standalone video games belong to a larger fictional universe and share elements of lore, characters, and story.
While hints of the Remedy Connected Universe have existed for more than a decade, its official existence was not confirmed until August 7, 2020. Control's Expansion 2: AWE was the first formal crossover event in the Remedy Extended Universe, connecting the video games Control and Alan Wake.
The Remedy Extended Universe is known to include Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control. The official status of Remedy Entertainment's other games, Death Rally and Max Payne, within this universe is not yet known.
Contents
History[]
Connections between video games by Remedy Entertainment have existed for more than ten years. The most prominent connections began with 2010's Alan Wake, which featured significant references to the Max Payne games released in the early 2000s. Alan Wake and its larger universe also included some of the very earliest references to Control, including mention of Ordinary, the Federal Bureau of Control, and Altered World Events. Several characters mentioned or appearing in Control were first alluded to in Alan Wake.
2016's Quantum Break furthered connections between Remedy's games, including multiple direct Alan Wake references, and further allusions and connections to Control. The release of Control in 2019 elevated these references from mere Easter eggs to the status of a shared canon, including documents confirming that the Federal Bureau of Control was connected to the events that occurred in Alan Wake.
In August 2020, the trailer for Control's second DLC, Expansion 2: AWE, was released, featuring Alan Wake and the Dark Presence from Alan Wake. Shortly thereafter, Sam Lake, the creative director of Remedy Entertainment, confirmed the existence of the Remedy Connected Universe in an article and also that Expansion 2: AWE was the first crossover event in this shared universe.
Lake also confirmed that the next game to be released by Remedy Entertainment will also exist in this shared universe.
Games[]
Control[]
Control is one of the most significant entries in the Remedy Connected Universe, due to contextualizing the events of Alan Wake within a larger universe with established rules, metaphysics, and larger organizations. Unlike Alan Wake, which was mainly a self-contained story, Control focused on broad global Altered World Events, developing the supernatural aspect of the Remedy Connected Universe as a whole. Alan Wake was established as being merely one instance of these AWEs on a smaller scale, in Bright Falls.
Alan Wake[]
Alan Wake has been established as taking place within the larger universe of Control. While Alan Wake left many of its larger mysteries unanswered, Control provides context and answers for many of these mysteries by establishing the nature of what occurred in Bright Falls. Alan Wake is a character in Control and has a prominent role in Expansion 2: AWE.
Max Payne[]
The status of Max Payne in the Remedy Connected Universe is unclear. Many Max Payne references are made in Alan Wake. In one of his dialogues with Jesse Faden, Dylan Faden implies that Max Payne exists in a separate parallel universe from Alan Wake and Control, a world possibly influenced by the writings of Alan Wake.
Quantum Break[]
Quantum Break contained references to both Alan Wake and Control.
- One piece of evidence in Control connecting all three games is the television show Night Springs, which the FBC recently purchased and rebooted. This same show appears in both Quantum Break (see here) and Alan Wake (see here).
- During one of his rants in the AWE expansion, Frederick Langston mentions the band My Bleeding Clock which was first mentioned in Quantum Break.
Other media[]
This House of Dreams[]
This House of Dreams is a blog which was published throughout 2012, confirmed later that year by Sam Lake and Remedy Entertainment to be connected to Alan Wake. It details strange occurrences in the life of a woman named Samantha after she moves to Ordinary, Maine, with mentions to the poetry of Thomas Zane, other events from Alan Wake, and a mysterious shoebox.
- Control directly mentions these events on a whiteboard in Central Research, which gives the blog author's full name as Samantha Wells and further indicates that the FBC was alerted by her blog's contents and took the shoebox from her house, though they later lost it and it ended up back in Wells' hands.
- Interestingly, in This House of Dreams, Samantha mentions being visited by a federal agent from the "AWE" rather than the FBC as would be indicated in Control.
